Bridge Big: Siren

Hi all

I’m excited about moving into my apartment in Amsterdam next week. No more 3 hour commutes. Yay! It’s tiny but that’s okay, I don’t need a lot of room. My only (returning) pet peeve is the low-hanging shower head. Don’t constructors/builders/architects take the taller slice of the population into account? A long hot shower in a semi-crouch just isn’t that appealing.

Talking about showers, here’s a deal on Bridge Big where my partner gave me warm and fuzzy feelings. I pick up a decent 15-count and I wonder whether I’m going to open 1 or a strong NT. My partner is way ahead of me. 

South
KQJ76
K82
Q6
A84
West
North
East
South
pass
1
pass
1
pass
2
pass
41
pass
4
pass
42
pass
6
DBL
pass
pass
6NT
DBL
a.p.
  1. Revealing my slam ambitions with a crude jump
  2. Go ahead partner, you do the Ace asking. I don’t like to do that when holding only one key card myself. 

For some reason or another East decided to alert us of  a bad split. I don’t know why partner ran to 6NT but I’m not unhappy with my balanced collection. I usually prefer strain-strain-strain over NT. East leads the Ten and this is what my partner sees:

North
A3
AQ63
A2
KJ976
South
KQJ76
K82
Q6
A84

Plenty of tricks and plenty of play. Combined with East screaming like a madman about the sanity of our contract my partner had no problems executing a safety play in the suit. He won the Ace and immediately ran the Jack. When East covered it was all over: +14 IMP and €9.97 come to papa! 

West Dealer
NS Vul
North
A3
AQ63
A2
KJ976
West
9854
74
JT97543
East
T2
JT95
K8
QT532
South
KQJ76
K82
Q6
A84

SuitPlay by Jeroen Warmerdam tells us the suit should be tackled by running the 6 or the Jack first, completely equal in odds (97,1739%) to take four tricks.

When I showed my friend Dennis this deal he offered another approach to bring home twelve tricks. Assuming East holds the King for his insane double, you can crush him by running your and and then place West with Ace and a . That’ll probably work out, too.